The child continued to cry, her coughing and wailing echoing throughout the chamber. The design of the chamber was such that even a whisper could travel throughout it, leaving no secrets left unheard. 

Gutt sat down, clutching at his throne with one hand, his great-axe with the other. His eyes remained glued to Entalia with a deathly glare, as though he was dreaming of cutting her head from her shoulders. 

Aksak reached out a hand. "Bring the child to me," he said. He outstretched his fingers patiently. 

Adam turned to Elowen, who nodded her head to Redboulder. The dwarf hobbled his way up the steps to the Prince and then gingerly placed the crying baby into his giant palm. Aksak brought her close and peered at her, as though inspecting and ancient artifact lost to time. 

"A curse of old," he said. "I can't give you more than my pity, as it seems you have been healed. A stunted growth, but a healthy body." He then rocked the child slowly with his hand. The child reached up and grabbed onto his beard, stopping her cries suddenly as she played with his beard.

"You've grown up," Entalia said. "You're no longer the whimpering boy from all those years ago."

"Centuries have a way of tempering a man's soul. That and the loss of so many old friends." 

"One day you'll be gone," Entalia said, "and I'll have one less friend." 

"If only my people were as long lived as yours, but our mortality gives us hope. I had thought a darkness would ride in my time so that I may reach the untrodden snow of Ohm." 

"Enough of this!" Gutt growled. "This thief should return what is ours!" 

"What is yours? I don't remember you ever touching the sword."

"It is my birthright!" 

"Your birthright was to be a Helm," Aksak said. 

Entalia looked to Gutt and then back up to Aksak. "So he died?" 

"We lost him a century ago, to a sudden snowstorm." Aksak bowed his head. 

“I’m sorry to hear about your loss.” Entalia bowed her head, for once becoming serious.

"Have you no pride, you old kook?" Gutt clutched at his great-axe harder. "You should give up the throne while you still have some dignity." 

"You will get the throne when my time comes," Aksak said, "and not one day sooner. I still have more days to live yet."

Gutt clicked his teeth. "It's better to die a warrior than to live as a sheep." 

Aksak seemed unphased by his son's outburst. "A Lady of Sansant. How many years has it been since our people have met?"

"Too many years, oh great Prince. Our people are so far from one another, and the events of the world have always made our meetings strenuous."

"It is half our fault, for we rarely leave our domain. In these halls are scribed our treaty from long ago, which I can recite to you by my mind alone, no matter how dull it has become." 

"We wish to renew our friendship, to forge a greater bond. We have slain Vandra, an enemy of both our people, and aim to deal with her kin." 

"Ah, yes… Vandra, a name I haven't heard in some time. Last we met, she had given me a scar. If only I had the chance to crush her skull this day." He reached down to his side, touching an unseen scar. "Is this why you have brought such a dangerous being to our realms?" 

Elowen looked towards Entalia. "Adam voucher for her, and he has been a great ally to us. His strength had been invaluable on our journey and has proved himself to be trusted. If he vouched for her, then I am inclined to accept." 

Yet that entire time he was not looking at Entalia, but Adam. Was it Adam he had meant?

"We can speak more of him later," Entalia said. "There is business to attend to." 

"Indeed." Aksak tossed the child into the air, and Adam leapt forward, though cross as he saw the princess float her way towards Redboulder. "You say you have come to reforge the bonds between our people. Do you have one among you who can read the Yotung?"

"I am familiar with it," Ylra said, nodding her head. 

Aksak stood from his throne, towering over everyone. Though he was standing on top of a set of steps, he was still taller than any other frost giant Adam had ever seen. The giant grabbed his furs and then tossed it over his throne, revealing a bare muscular chest, covered in tattoos, engravings, and scars. He turned around to reveal a scar-less back, though it was covered in runes engraved onto his skin. 

Ylra’s eyes scanned the back and then she nodded. “I see it,” she said.

Aksak then grabbed onto his fur and then wrapped it around himself, covering his runes, before he sat back onto his throne. 

“My son has yet to carve the runes into his back, but with your appearance I can say that we will respect the terms that have been written.”

Elowen dropped down to a knee and then bowed her head. “Thank you, great Prince.”

Aksak raised a hand. “It does no good for my people for a Sansant to bow their head or kneel.” Aksak then stood again. 

“She is merely showing her respect, as she should,” Gutt said. “She knows of her place here.”

“Watch your tongue brother,” Joti said. “We have tied ourselves once more to the Sansant, there is no need for you to strain our bonds.”

“Strain our bonds? What is wrong with paying the correct respects.”

“Would you bow to the Lady when you meet with her?”

“Watch your tongue, brother!” Gutt snarled. “You should remember your place.”

“Only if you remember yours.”

Gutt snarled and reached for his great-axe, and Joti placed a hand on the hilt of his great-sword. 

“Oh?” Gutt smiled. “That great-sword is your birthright, isn’t it?”

Joti narrowed his eyes, though he did not make to draw his sword. Instead the pair of brother remained like this, seconds away from drawing their weapons against one another.

Adam looked between the pair of them. “Man, you two really are brothers, huh?” he said, trying to diffuse the situation.

Gutt’s eyes fell on the half-elf. “Who are you to speak, little boy?”

“Adam,” he replied, falling silent moments after.

“A bronze ranked adventurer? You should know your place.”

“I know my place better than you know yours,” Adam quipped.

Gutt snarled, drawing his great-axe. Joti drew his own blade and the pair returned their attention to one another. Aksak stood, raising his staff. His sons froze as he slammed the staff down onto the ground. 

“Sit,” he said, “before I make you.”

His sons sat as he said, and Aksak remained standing. He clasped the head of his staff with both hands and looked down to Adam. 

“Where do you hail from, boy?”

“Uh, a village from the little of nowhere,” Adam replied, beginning to sweat. He hadn’t thought of a name of his village, and was trying to quickly think of one. “The village of Londo.” 

“A small village you say.” His eyes remained glued to Adam.

“Stop frightening the boy,” Entalia said, stepping ahead of Adam. 

“I see. You have come in such a state, I wonder what was so important that you had need to speak with me.”

“Well…” Entalia reached down to her sword and then tossed it towards the frost giant. It landed before his feet, though Gutt had stood, drawing his greataxe. “I thought I may as well return your sword to you.”

The blade on the floor then expanded, no longer a longsword, but a large greatsword, grey with veins of light blue throughout its blade. Aksak nodded his head and then raised a hand, and the weapon floated over to him. He examined it for a long moment and then he strapped it around his waist. 

“I thank you for your change of heart,” he said. “No longer are you exiled from our lands.” 

“What mad-”

Aksak raised his staff, causing his son to silence himself, before the giant slammed it into the ground. With that he stepped forward, down the steps, and then in front of the group. 

“It seems our fortunes have risen. Come, let us speak in private.” Aksak then walked ahead, leaving his pair of sons to sit on their thrones. 

The group followed Aksak, who walked slowly, though his strides were much greater so the rest could keep pace with him. He walked out of the long hallway and then out into the snow, leading them around the perimeter of the city. 

“It seems you have healed the child well without our assistance,” the giant said. “You have done well.”

“We had come across a master herbalist who managed to create a potion for us.”

“Yet what evils have befallen the kingdom to curse a newborn child…” Aksak growled lowly, like a panther. 

“We are dealing with the situation.” Elowen threw a glance towards Ylra.

“What other business have you come to Muten for?” Aksak asked.

“There is a minor issue of My’dai in the south,” Ylra said. “They are attacking the villages of humans.”

“My’dai,” Aksak hummed out. “So there were no Mu’dai in the mountains?”

“None that we have seen.”

“Curious.”

“Will you help them?” Adam chimed in.

“We do not leave our homes for such matters,” Aksak said, turning to face the half-elf. “Our business is not to assist the humans.”

“So you won’t help them?”

“We are still speaking of the matter.”

Adam raised a brow. “Right? So you want me to try and convince you?”

“No.” Aksak shook his head. “There are another here to convince us.”

“Others?”

“Humans. One who carries the blood of one of our old clans.”

“The Yspek?” Ylra asked.

“Yes. You know of them?” Aksak asked.

“We do,” she said.

“Wait… Jon’s parents?” Adam asked. “Oh right! Jon! Jon’s a frost giant that lives with them. They adopted him.”

“I have heard.”

“Even after that, you won’t assist them?”

“These matters must be spoken about.”

“We don’t know how long they’ll have.”

“I do not underestimate the resilience of man.”

“It’s not a matter of resilience, it’s a matter of luck.”

“Luck?”

“If the mud giants find the humans and their safe haven. They are currently being assisted by some Iyrmen, but who knows how safe they’ll remain.”

“Iyrmen? Then they are safe.”

“They’ll be able to handle it, but at what cost? These giants can throw rocks and hurt a handful of people at a time. If there are more than ten giants, then that’s already dozens of humans dead.”

“Even so, we cannot move so quickly. There must be a gathering to speak of it, and only then are we able to assist.”

“Then when is the gathering?” Adam asked.

“A few weeks at the earliest.”

“That’ll take too long!”

“Then why don’t you assist them?”

“I will.”

“Why don’t you leave now?”

“I’m just one man. I can’t change much.”

“Hope only requires one.”

Adam looked up at the old giant. “I promised to send help their way. I was paid to do it with the greatest treasures they had.”

“Then find help, boy, but we will not break our conventions for a stranger.”

Elowen turned to Adam. “We should speak of this later, with calmer minds.”

“I guess I’m just disappointed,” Adam said. He sighed and looked to Entalia. “I hadn’t expected the frost giants to be so cowardly.” He felt his cheeks flush with anger as he clenched his fists.

“Cowardly is a word one can use,” Aksak said, cutting through the gasps of Elowen’s party. “We are slow moving, as is our nature. We are ice, not fire.”

“Ice isn’t slow,” Adam said. “Snow isn’t either.”

“Perhaps the metaphor wasn’t the best.”

Adam shrugged his shoulders. “Well, don’t worry about it. You have your own way of doing things, even if I think it’s wrong or cowardly.” Adam looked up at Aksak, but the giant didn’t seem to take any offence. 

“You’re a dangerous young man,” Aksak said.

Adam raised his brows in alarm. “What?” 

“Keep your hands off him,” Entalia said, stepping in front of Adam. “He doesn’t need that much hospitality.”

“I wonder… why have you brought him here?”

“I didn’t.”

“Hmmm. I suppose you didn’t.” Aksak looked to Elowen. “You know of his abilities?”

“He is powerful,” Elowen said, trying to remain vague. 

“Yes, he is.” Aksak reached down with a hand and then brushed a finger along Bandlor’s crown. “Powerful he is.”

‘Oh damn it! He knows too?!’ Adam stepped back and placed a hand over Bandlor. 

“We will speak of this matter another day,” Aksak said. 

Adam frowned, but he did not say anything. Instead he remained silent, looking to Elowen. “Sorry,” he whispered. 

They eventually returned to their chambers, where Elowen stepped up to Adam. “You are lucky we are under the Edict of Hospitality.”

“I suppose I am.” Adam shrugged his shoulders.

“That was reckless.”

“I’m sure it was.”

“Why did you speak to him in such a way?”

“I had to,” Adam replied. “If I didn’t, then what else could I have done?”

“You need to be patient. I understand that you have grown around humans, but you need your elvish sensibilities to win out.”

“There’s nothing wrong with my elvish sensibilities, but I just prefer my human sensibilities.” Adam snapped back at her, narrowing his eyes. “I think you need to get in touch with your human side.”

Elowen sighed. “I didn’t mean any offence.”

“I’m sure you didn’t,” Adam replied back. “I’ve escorted you here and I’ve received my payment. I’ll remain here for a few days until I can figure out what to do, and then…”

“Then what?”

“I’ll have to see.”

“You’re leaving?” Entalia asked.

“Probably.”

“Why?”

“I need to help the human village that’s currently being attacked.”

“Why?”

“They paid me.”

“How much?”

Adam looked to his bag and then back to Entalia. “Enough.”

“Doesn’t sound like a lot.”

“It’s worth it.” Adam looked at Entalia long and hard. “What about you?” Adam asked.

“Me?”

“Are you going to stay here?”

“Probably.”

“How much would it cost me for your aid?”

“To help the village?” Entalia asked. “I don’t think you could afford me.”

“I’m sure, but I have to ask anyway.”

Entalia stared at him for a little while, her eyes flashing many different emotions. “For a favour,” she said.

“A favour?”

“That will be my price.”

“What kind of favour?”

“It’ll be determined at a later time. You still owe me for the sword I returned.”

Adam picked up his blade and handed it to her. “A blade for a blade?”

Entalia snatched the sword away from him and then clutched it to her chest. She sniffed it and Adam shuddered. Had he just made a grave mistake?

“I’ll help you, little Adam.” Entalia smiled the same smile Adam had grown to fear.